Fish Shop Story Idea - A Fishy Accident

Below is a true story that my mum sent me about an incident with her Silver Bengal, Nemo. She thought it could be a good short for one of my animations as its funny and includes a cat and fish. Below is the story.


It was a nice sunny morning and mum was going to feed the fish. She took the lid off the fish tank and opened the jar of the fish food. As she was in a hurry she sprinkled them straight from the tub. As she started to sprinkle the fish food in the tank, Nemo decided he wanted to have some for his meal too. He knocked the tub that was in her hand and the lid fell off while sprinkling so most of the food fell in the tank. The fish tank looked like a snow scene. So tried to hoover it with a fish tank hoover, that was unsuccessful. we thought everything was ok because it settled like a snow drift at the bottom. When we came back Nemo was watching the fish as they were dying.


It is a good story and I could have my cat moaning for food before and make it seem he thinks the fish food is his or that he should be fed first. I could also make the fish get fatter and fatter and suddenly cough and die. Remus could even pull out some sort of betting book and bet which fish will die first. He could even run and get Misty and Nemo so they could put bets down too.
The hoovering bit could be made funny too. Instead of a tank one, I could panic and find a mini handheld hoover that could choke and die. Making me panic and hide it. Then hid the food tub too and walkaway whistling. Matt could then be the one that finds the fish dead. This idea may include too many characters though.

New Simon's Cat Film!

Simon's Cat has a new film out! Intersting how I found out about it the day after Remus first experienced snow. He acted a lot like Simon's Cat, attacking the snow and his reaction to being hit with a snow ball I mean :p



Here are some photos of Remus in the snow. If your wondering, he is wearing a harness and is on his lead.

Plan of the Week

Seen as my dissertation has been handed in and I won't get it back this week I will focus on my project. I have decided that I will go with my Fish Shop idea but with a flat above as a possible advancement depends on what stories I come up with and if any would suit a home instead. Any way, below is my plan.

Wednesday
* Christmas Party in the Studio
* Do more designs for my cat character

Thursday
* Take photos of pet shops and make a collage/display of them.
* Do some designs for my fish shop
* Uni - Karen Dissertation Lecture
* Do some concept art

Friday
* Do more concept art
* Do model sheets for cat
* Look at human character (people have said to have me as the main person in the shorts but have Matt as another member of staff)
* HUMCC Christmas Party

Saturday
(Will probably be dead today)
* Do some self portrait caricatures

Sunday
* Do some caricatures of Matt
* Design my people characters

Some books I want

I have been looking online at some books that have been recommended and look helpful with giving me ideas for my project and how to make my designs better. Could also have some good quote for my dissertation. Below is the list.

* Walt Disney Animation Studios the Archive Series: Animation

* The Art of Bolt by Mark Cotta Vaz

* Art of the Princess and the Frog by Jeff Kurtti and John Lasseter (my idol!)

* The Art of Up (Pixar Animation) by Tim Hauser

* Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures: 1 by Walt Stanchfield and Don Hahn

* Drawn to Life: 10 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures: 2 by Walt Stanchfield and Don Hahn

Imaginary Friends and Tristan.

I've been writing about Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends in my dissertation and I was thinking of the character designs and how they look like their personalities and skills. This got me thinking about my youngest brother, Tristan who had an imaginary friend called ‘Halfie’ (pronounced hal-fee) when he was younger, (I always imagined that he got the name from Halfords where I worked at the time). Tristan told me that she was a great mechanic who helped him fix stuff. He also described her as very pretty, blonde and nice like me. With how he described her I imagine that if she was one the friends on the show that she would be tall like a model, curvy, a warm sun yellow for the kindness and hair. She could also have tools for fingers such as a hammer, screwdriver, wrench. Etc. for the mechanical skills Tristan gave her. Of course Tristan outgrew Halfie and she was forgotten just like most of the friends on the show.

Oh and its funny how Mac looks so much like Tristan! Look below!

Interview with Craig McCracken

Below is a link to a site where I found an interview with Craig on the Powerpuff Girls 10th Anniversary.

http://coldhardflash.com/2009/01/powerpuff-girls-10th-anniversary-interview-with-creator-craig-mccracken.html


Below is another interview I found with him.

http://www.tibbysbowl.com/bowl/2009/01/28/craig-mccracken-interview/

Craig McCracken (Foster's Home)

Ok, seen as Simon Tofield is too busy at the moment to reply I have been thinking who else I could ask questions and recieve advice from. My first thought was Craig McCracken who created Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Just need to find some contact details for him now! In the meantime below are some quotes he has said.

• Anything you see on the screen was at one point approved by me.

• Basicly I'm in charge of all creative aspects of the show.

• Basicly what I had to do was do a 7 minute board and pitch it to a room of big wigs from the network and based on that they determined if I would get a short or not.

• But to me what seems to be missing in a lot of portfolios is Cartooning.

• First, there was 2 Stupid Dogs. Then, Dexter's Laboratory. And now, Powerpuff Girls. There were a lot of little things in between, but those were the main ones.

• For a long time I wanted to be a comic strip artist but when I started doing them in my teens they were getting really elaborate with tons of poses and a lot of information.

• I started working at Hanna-Barbera in '92 on 2 Stupid Dogs.

• I'm a geeky toy collector, and to have toys of your own characters is unbelievably cool.

• I'm always thinking about what I might want to do next, but there's still things I want to do with Powerpuff - so I can keep going with this one for awhile.

• I'm hoping that word-of-mouth on the film - people seeing it and liking it - that that will drive more people to the theaters, because I haven't seen the billboards or the posters or anything.

• I've been drawing since I was about 3 and I come from a family of artists.

• It really just gives you a sense of when you need to have dialogue and when you don't, and if your pictures are telling the story, you don't need to have all this talking.

• One of the main things I do is focus on ideas and what stories we decide to tell, but probably the biggest part of my job I'd say is working on the storyboards.

• So what I do is supervise the boarding process trying to get the shows the way I'd like them to be. And in some cases I've completely redone a board myself even though I'm not credited for it.

• The reason they look the way they do is that the first drawing I did of them was really small so I didn't draw fingers, nose, ears, etc and this drawing had a certain appeal that I really liked.

• The shows are either 11 or 22 minutes and they move pretty quickly, and that's part of the charm of them - so it was just trying to keep that in mind and keep the energy of the story moving, even though we were dealing with a longer format.

• The storyboard artists job is to plan out shot for shot the whole show, write all the dialog, and decide the mood, action, jokes, pacing, etc of every scene.

• There's a lot you can do without words.

• We chose the actors thru a series of auditions when we started the show.

• Well, for one thing, the executives in charge at Cartoon Network are cartoon fans. I mean, these are people who grew up loving animation and loving cartoons, and the only difference between them and me is they don't know how to draw.

• Yes, it's a prequel. It tells the story about how the girls were born with superpowers, but they weren't necessarily heroes at the beginning of this movie, so the movie is about the events that happen in their life to make them decide to be heroes.

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/craig_mccracken.html - accessed on 14th Dec)

I got a reply from Simon's Cat

Below is the reply I received when I asked Simon Tofield if I could ask him some questions about the processes, inspiration.etc. of Simon's Cat. Bit dissapointed that he is too busy but it's understandable. He did say that he is unable to help till things quieten down though so you never know, I might still get the help I really wanted :D Thank you Simon for getting back to me and I'm glad that you liked my blog.


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Hi Emma,

I had a look at your blog. Very interesting! Thanks for finding Simon's Cat worth mentioning.

After seeing your hard work and dedication it's with regret that I have to say that Simon is unable to assist you at this time.

Ideally he would love to help everyone interested with animation and cats, but due to a large number of prior obligations he is currently engaged in, he is unable to help till things quieten down.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing where you take Remus.

Kind regards,
Simon's Cat

Ideas from questionnaire answers

The one that has really made me think and come up with a new idea is the one about the story ideas. I love both and so far the results show 50:50. This is why I have come up with a new idea. Mix the two! Who says that the fish shop owner can't live above the shop! Then episodes could have the cat in the shop or in the flat above. I really like this idea but when the flat is first introduced the cat will have to go up the stairs to show the audience it is still part of the shop and the cat hasn't just appeared in a home.

Interview with Hayao Miyazaki from Ghibli Studios

Below is a link to an interview with Hayao Miyazaki. It is a very interesting read.

http://www.angelfire.com/anime/NVOW/Interview1.html

Cool new Go Cat Advert!

Go cat have a new advert out with well animated 3d cats. Below is the advert!!

Please click on the link to do my Questionnaire!

Please click on the link to do my questionnaire. I have created this Questionnaire to help me with my final year project and dissertation. Well explained answers will be greatly appreciated.


Click here to take my Online Questionnaire

My questionnaire to give people

Below is the questionnaire that I plan to ask people to fill out for my dissertation as primary research. I believe that what I have asked will give me helpful advice and quotes for my dissertation and project. If you wish to be helpful then please leave a comment on this post with your answers.

To view a larger version of the questionnaire you need to click on the image of the page you wish to view.